Jacynta Knox, 19, of Brooklyn. Knox is accused of taking the girl's cell phone and smashing it, then overpowering the girl and kicking her in the eye with a boot.

2 SUNY Sullivan students arrested for assaulting police, student

By Victor Whitman

Times Herald-Record

December 13, 2012 - 2:00 AM

LOCH SHELDRAKE — Two SUNY Sullivan students have been charged with assault after a brawl at the Loch Sheldrake college on Tuesday injured the school's resource officer and another student.

Jacynta Knox, 19, of Brooklyn, and Kedar El, 19, of Montrose, were charged and held overnight at the Sullivan County Jail. Deputies say around 11:30 a.m. Knox got into an argument outside an astronomy classroom in the "B" building with Annie Smith, 19, of the Bronx, over a laptop.

Knox is accused of taking the girl's cell phone and smashing it, then overpowering the girl and kicking her in the eye with a boot.

The school's resource officer, Cpl. Michael Schneider of the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office, and the school's director of public safety, David Seigerman, were notified and ran from the security office, 200 yards away.

The fight had finished but an eyewitness pointed Knox out. As Schneider was in the process of arresting her, El is accused of jumping into the fray and calling on other students to cause a riot.

Eventually the two were taken back to the security office, where a second fight broke out. While Knox was cuffed from behind and sitting on a chair El started to struggle with Schneider. As the deputy was on the ground cuffing him, Schneider said, Knox leapt up from the chair and kicked him several times in the groin and back of the head.

Smith and Schneider both sought treatment at Catskill Regional Medical Center in Harris.

Knox was charged with assault on a police officer and assault with the intent to cause a serious injury, and criminal mischief, felonies. El was charged with assault on a police officer. Both were charged with obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest, misdemeanor.

County Judge Mike McGuire arraigned the two on Tuesday and sent them to the Sullivan County Jail on $15,000 bail.

"My understanding is that they have been suspended and the judge issued an order of protection that they should stay away from the college and its employees," Undersheriff Eric Chaboty said.